Call Obuh to order

The League Management Company (LMC), which runs the Globacom Premier League, matches must protect the brand, if it hopes to attract more sponsors to the domestic game. Most times, willing corporate bodies sit on the fence to watch and evaluate the trends in the Globacom Premier League before making any form of commitment.

Therefore, the LMC must be proactive to comments by those who try to bring the game to disrepute by their words or behavior. Sanctions must be immediate on those found culpable. Where the referees don’t record such comments or conducts like they often do, the LMC could on the strength of comments in the media invite those culpable to explain why they should not be punished.

In cases of media reports, the LCM can invite a reporter to substantiate his or her claims. Where the media can provide recorded voices of players, coaches and officials bringing opium to the game, then sanctions should be handed out to deter others.

Indeed, the only way the LMC can reduce – if not eliminate – these unwholesome conducts by coaches, players and officials is for the broadcast right holder, Supersports, to show us all the matches in delayed broadcast. It is not enough for Supersports to show matches live. Supersports should also show recorded matches and get credible people (former referees, ex-coaches, renowned journalists and ex-international players) across the strata of the game to express their views on the controversial aspects of the matches.

For instance, Enugu Rangers technical adviser John Obuh pilloried the referees who handled Sunday’s Globacom Premier League cracker against Enyimba in Aba. Curiously, Rangers lost 2-1 with all the goals scored by Enyimba players. Even the goal recorded for Rangers was an own goal by an Enyimba player.

The question then for Obuh would be if Rangers scored a disallowed goal. But those who know how some unscrupulous referees manipulate games say that he or she could use the whistle to kill off potential goal-bound moves.

In some cases, such a referee could ignore crunchy tackles on the visitors or intimidate the visiting side’s players out of their wits with yellow cards. These are mere allegations, which can be thrown into the trash bin with visuals on television from the match venues.

I saw the three goals scored in the Enyimba/Rangers game in Aba during the SuperSports’ Monday night show on television and none of them was fraudulent. Supersports need to have daily progammes dedicated to the Globacom Premier League where all the week’s matches are shown. Fans should be allowed to express their views on talking points of the league, like we see daily on Supersports from the Barclays English Premier League.

This fans’ forum will set the agenda for us. Such candid views would help the LMC know the problems plaguing the league, particularly why attendance at venues is poor. Fans who like what they see at home weekly may be moved to watch the Globacom Premier League matches anytime the teams they admire visit the towns where they reside.

The ripple effects of some of these unsubstantiated allegations rest with the fact that fans wouldn’t want to come to see the games because the results, in their view are pre-determined.

Aside, the gestures from these complaining coaches, players and officials trigger violence from the spectators, who are divided along the two teams. Of course, the visiting teams go home with unsavoury tales of what happened in the first game. These sad tales set the stage for vengeance in the return match.

If we must get the fans to watch the Globacom Premier League matches, then untoward tendencies as highlighted with the actions of the coaches, players, officials and referees must the reduced.

We must create the right environment for the games to be played. The essence of sponsorship of the domestic league will be lost if there are no spectators at the stands. In other climes, the fans are the 12th player. The noise from the stands gives their players the energy to fight on.

The domestic league is the cradle of our football. No one should desecrate it. If the matches are free of violence, scouts from Europe, the Americas and the Diaspora would storm the venues to see our players strut their trade. Most of the players that made their marks at the senior level played the game here.

For this season, Enugu Rangers are the cash cows for all the teams anytime they parade Ejike Uzoenyi. Fans will storm any stadium where Rangers is playing to touch Uzoenyi. They would want to see him live.

In Aba last Sunday, the fans held him hostage, not essentially for his role in Rangers 1-2 loss to Enyimba. But for his sterling outing for the home-based Super Eagles at the CHAN tournament held in South Africa early this year. The irony of Aba fans’ mob of Uzoenyi is that he was rejected by Enyimba. Besides, he played for Rangers last and didn’t get this mob action from the appreciative fans. That is what Uzoenyi will face in any city in Nigeria, if he plays for Rangers. Uzoenyi was Nigeria’s best player in CHAN and rightly deserves all the accolades from Nigerians. He brought us joy. He united us with his dazzling performance. And there cannot be a better way to say thank you than for the fans to throng the stadium for his autographs and pictures which they will treasure for life. Imagine if Enyimba paraded Austin Okocha or Nwankwo Kanu? The Aba stadium would have recorded a stampede.

The LMC must do everything within its power to bring the fans back to the stadium. And it would start by getting the clubs to make the venue safe. With many fans comes higher earnings from the gates. I’m sure that any club that brings Flavour to thrill the fans before matches, for instance, would record a capacity-filled stadium, if the next artiste is Tuface Idibia. Sports and entertainment can mix to lure the fans to the stadium. Clubs must offer the fans something to lure them back. The period between 1.30pm and 4 pm when the game begins will be meaningful to the fans if they can dance to their favourite music. With such top notch musicians at the venues miming (before you ask me how we would remove their equipment), the stadium will be jam-packed. The clubs will earn more from the gates and the players, coaches and officials will be happy. The increase in the players’, coaches’ and officials’ emoluments will enhance performance. The Nigerian game will be better for it.

My problem with most club managements is that they are lickspittles of the government in states. Most times, they are excited with being board members of clubs because they feel it is an avenue to “chop.” They don’t think. They feed themselves fat, leaving the real actors being owed salaries for up to two years.

We need to improvethe financial status of our clubs, if we must compel Nigerians to identify with it. I cringe when Nigerians pride themselves as financial members of foreign clubs. I really don’t blame them because our local clubs are more or else casinos for governors’ lackeys, which is regrettable. But we cannot surrender the clubs to these lickspittles. Hence, one is pleading with the LMC to create a platform where players’ inter and intra club movements are documented for us to evaluate them at the end of each season.

The general impression being created by those who run our local clubs is that they are drainpipes. They would peddle all the influence they can muster to retain their jobs, if asked to quit for others.

In Europe, transfers serve as money spinners for clubs with the culture of grooming talents for the richer clubs to poach. Most governors who sponsor soccer teams would be shocked to hear how the clubs get from transferring players to Europe. Not many of these state government clubs have domiciliary accounts, yet they have transferred players to Europe. So, how did money change hands between the Nigerian clubs and their European counterparts for the players to change teams? Herein lies the biggest scandals of our football. But who will bell the cat? Until governors, through their commissioners for sports, compel club administrators to account for the cash given to them, the rot in the domestic league will remain.